Thursday, May 13, 2010

Iranian warship the Jamaran on Sunday test-fired a home-built torpedo for the first time as part of ongoing naval war games in the Gulf, state television’s website reported.”This torpedo is anti-submarine and when it is fired from the warship, it automatically hunts for the submarine and destroys it,” navy commander Arya Hassani was quoted as saying.The report said the torpedo was fired from the Iran-built Jamaran, which was deployed earlier this year. It has a displacement of around 1,400 tonnes and is equipped for electronic warfare.

On Wednesday the Islamic republic’s navy began eight days of manoeuvres in the Gulf, Sea of Oman and the northern Indian Ocean covering an area of 250,000 square kilometres (around 97,000 square miles).The drill comes weeks after a similar exercise by the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps in the Gulf and in the key oil route of Strait of Hormuz.Iran’s armed forces regularly conduct such drills, often test-firing what they say are home-built missiles.BY: AFP